This book explores the role of sport within the context of South Asian Society. Academics have largely overlooked this fascinating discussion and this collection of essays seeks to remedy this oversight. It reveals that sport can not only be used in many instances as a barometer of the political dynamics of society and a reflection of South Asian culture, it has also influenced these structures.For example, in many instances traditional notions of class divides and gender roles are challenged and subverted in sport, making its role and contribution to the fabric of South Asian society extremely valuable. Furthermore, this book should provide the scope to draw together historians and other scholars to examine methodological issues as well as particular case studies and narratives examining different comprehensions of 'sport'. This book is a special issue of the journal 'the International Journal of the History of Sport'. Contents List of tables Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Series Editors' Foreword Introduction The Fall and Rise of Indian Sports History Prologue: Stepping Stones Across a Stream Raj and Post Raj Identities: Sport & South Asia - The Early Cricketing ours: Imperial Provenance and Radical Potential - 1911 in Retrospect: A Revisionist Perspective on a Famous Indian Sporting Victory - Imperial Tool 'for' Nationalist Resistance: The 'Games Ethic' in Indian History - Imperial and Post-Imperial Congruence: A Challenge to Ideological Simplifiications Narrative Histories: Sport in Colonial and Post Colonial South Asia - 'An Inheritance from the British': The Indian Boxing Story - 'Legacies, Halycon Days and Thereafter': A Brief History of Indian Tennis Marginal Voices: Women's Sport in Colonial and Post Colonial South Asia - Bengali Girls in Sport: A Socio-Economic Study of Kabadi Fleshing Out Mandira: Hemming in the Women's Constituency in Cricket Women in Sport: The Parsis and Jews in Twentieth-Century India Lagaan - Undertones and Overtones: South Asian Sport, Culture, Society - Cricket or Cricket Spectacle? Looking Beyond Cricket to Understand Lagaan Bollywood Motifs: Cricket Fiction and Fictional Cricket Cementing Ties: Sport in South Asian Diplomacy - Manufacturing Unison: Muslims, Hindus and Indians during the India-Pakistan Match - Globalizing Patriotism? Some Lessons From the Cricket World Cup of 2003 - To Play or Not To Play: Fabricating Consent over the Indo-Pak Cricket Series Cross Cutting Identities: Sport and the South Asian Diaspora - Spectatorship, Fandom, and Nationalism in the South Asian Diaspora: The 2003 Cricket World Cup - Cricketing Fervour and Islamic Fervour: Marginalisation in the Diaspora - Epilogue: '... there is always change' Index. Printed Pages: 355.